Egypt's Immigration and Expatriate Affairs Minister Nabila Makram announced on Monday the retention of Egyptian international lawyer Khaled Abu Bakr to follow up on investigations into the killing of an Egyptian student in Germany last month after reports by German media suggested she may have been the victim of a hate crime. 

According to the ministry, Abu Bakr has offered to follow up on the investigation at his own expense.

Shaden Mohamed, a 22-year-old architecture student at the German University in Cairo, was killed on 18 April in a hit-and-run incident in Cottbus, Brandenburg, with the driver of the car arrested shortly after, according to German media reports.  

Shaden was hospitalised but died of her injuries three days later. 

The ministry also said it is sending an official notice to German authorities calling for the investigation into the possibility the killing may have been a hate crime.

German newspaper Lausitzer Rundschau has cited witnesses as saying that the people in the car that hit Mohamed had laughed after striking her, and were heard saying that she should go back to her country.